On and Off the Romney Bus, Tryouts for a Spot on the Ticket

Mitt Romney and his family attended a Father’s Day picnic in Brunswick, Ohio.Credit
Richard Perry/The New York Times

NEWARK, Ohio — One of the most secretive rituals of the presidential race unfolded in plain sight over the weekend as Mitt Romney stood a few paces behind, watching and smiling, while a procession of prospective running mates delivered their best arguments against President Obama’s re-election.

“He said everything is fine. Do you think it’s fine?” Senator Rob Portman of Ohio asked a crowd gathered here in the town square on Sunday, reminding them of the president’s recent remark on the condition of the private sector. Several hundred people roared back “No!”

A day earlier, former Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota fired up a Pennsylvania audience as he shouted, “Have you had enough of Obamacare?” As the Republicans loudly replied “Yes,” Mr. Romney clapped his hands and joined in the revelry.

A growing sense of optimism surrounded Mr. Romney as he campaigned on a five-day bus tour through a half-dozen states that Mr. Obama carried in 2008, at least some of which seem to be within the Republican’s grasp. His caravan doubled as a series of rolling auditions, a chance for Mr. Romney and his family to measure their comfort level with a potential partner on the ticket.

Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, the chairman of the House Budget Committee and a favorite of many fiscal conservatives, takes his turn on Monday when he welcomes Mr. Romney to his hometown, Janesville. The list is also thought to include at least two governors, Chris Christie of New Jersey and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, and two senators, John Thune of South Dakota and Marco Rubio of Florida.

With some advisers pushing for an announcement as early as July, the roster of potential running mates is being whittled down by Mr. Romney, who has said that one quality rises above all: his vice-presidential nominee must be unquestionably prepared to be president, not simply to grow into the job. And, Mr. Romney has told his aides, he must feel that the candidate’s ambitions are directed at getting him elected in November.

The selection is still done with intense secrecy, but the Romney campaign has intentionally sought to eliminate at least some of the mystery about who might run. The back-to-back tryouts, first with Mr. Pawlenty, and then with Mr. Portman flipping pancakes with Mr. Romney on Sunday and standing alongside him for much of the day, provided a chance for the campaign to assess how Mr. Romney and either of the two would look as a ticket.

In the privacy of Mr. Romney’s bus, the two chatted about politics and policy as they chugged across Ohio. Mr. Portman even helped clean up some of Mr. Romney’s grandchildren, who were out on the road for the day and messy from blueberry pie.

Mr. Portman, who was elected to the Senate in 2010 after representing the Cincinnati area in Congress for 12 years, is seen as a leading prospect. He fits Mr. Romney’s strategic imperative for governing, after serving in both Bush administrations. Yet he has told friends he is unsure whether his work for President George W. Bush, particularly as the budget director, would be a drawback and provide an opening for Mr. Obama to argue that he inherited a growing deficit.

Mr. Portman, 56, endorsed Mr. Romney early and campaigned at his side during difficult days in his Republican primary race. The two men have had long conservations about governing. He declines to discuss the possibility of being named, perfecting another requisite: acting uninterested.

“I’m happy where I am, you know?” Mr. Portman told one voter on Sunday.

Mr. Romney, who has been thinking about a running mate since well before he locked up the Republican nomination, has been studying the dossiers on potential candidates. For weeks, lawyers have pored over votes in Congress, records in office, family histories, college dissertations and other published works.

The search process, which is being overseen by one of Mr. Romney’s longtime confidantes, Beth Myers, is entirely isolated from the rest of his Boston campaign headquarters. The methodology, which Ms. Myers has declined to discuss, has been streamlined from the extensive 80-part questionnaire that Mr. Romney and other Republicans received four years ago when Senator John McCain was selecting a running mate.

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Mr. Romney is weighing the advantages of making an announcement well before the party’s nominating convention in Florida at the end of August, several Republicans said. The benefits include having a second candidate to send to fund-raising events and to respond to the Obama administration, leaving Mr. Romney more time to prepare for debates and to pace himself for the grueling fight ahead.

A team is planning how a selection would be announced, but none of the people involved know who is on the short list.

The bonding time with these potential running mates has given Mr. Romney a strong sense of their strengths, weaknesses and quirks. During an appearance on “The Tonight Show,” Jay Leno cajoled Mr. Romney into a game of word association with his possible vice-presidential choices, and Mr. Romney hardly hesitated before coming up with a single adjective to describe each name Mr. Leno threw at him: “Indomitable” (Mr. Christie); “American dream” (Mr. Rubio); “creative” (Mr. Ryan); and “energetic” (Gov. Nikki R. Haley of South Carolina).

A below-the-radar lobbying campaign has broken out among top contributors, who often whisper to Mr. Romney as they shake hands at fund-raising events. Some of the names most frequently mentioned, according to several top donors, are Mr. Rubio and Mr. Portman. Both men, along with others, have been invited to join calls and events on behalf of Mr. Romney, which provides a way to gauge the excitement of a candidate and his ability to raise money.

Mr. Rubio, who does not know Mr. Romney well, is increasingly being dispatched by the campaign to appear at fund-raisers across the country. He is embarking on a tour of his own this week to promote his new book, “An American Son.”

Mr. Romney and his aides have carefully studied other vice-presidential selections — Democratic and Republican ones — and concluded that a do-no-harm approach best fits this election. His aides do not expect him to engage in a surprise pick, as Mr. McCain did four years ago with Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska.

In addition to a running mate being prepared to serve as president, aides said, Mr. Romney has expressed a strong desire for the candidate to be familiar with the rigors of the national campaign spotlight.

Mr. Pawlenty, who quickly endorsed Mr. Romney after ending his own presidential bid last year, is one of the few prospective running mates without a full-time day job. He has made himself more available than nearly anyone else, often traveling across the country several times a week for the campaign.

In Pennsylvania on Saturday, he was bouncing along on the campaign bus in bluejeans and keeping up an easy, casual rapport with Mr. Romney. And by Sunday morning, Mr. Pawlenty turned up in New York on the set of “This Week With George Stephanopoulos” on ABC, aggressively deflecting criticism about Mr. Romney’s policies on immigration and other issues.

Mr. Romney has formed some early impressions, according to several Republicans who spoke on the condition of anonymity: Mr. Christie is often late, as he was during a $5 million fund-raising dinner in New York City last month. After a few uncomfortable moments, Mr. Romney finally had to take the stage and speak first. When Mr. Christie did arrive, it was left to Mr. Romney to introduce him to the crowd.

A version of this article appears in print on June 18, 2012, on Page A13 of the New York edition with the headline: On and Off Bus, Tryouts for No. 2 on Ticket. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe